DID YOU READ

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”

[Photo: Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” Warner Bros., 2007]

According to Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” that famous outlaw’s last words were “Don’t that picture look dusty.” Dominik’s picture is dusty too, a throwback to the last great period of westerns in the early 1970s, those days of Peckinpah and Siegel and Altman. It succeeds in invoking that era, but not necessarily in equaling its great works.

The title, taken from the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, ostensibly explains the entire story, what little there is. But rather than focusing on the story, the movie is more about the end of the West and a variety of melancholic moods from grief to desperation to resignation to regret. It’s beautifully shot and acted, but languidly paced in a way that blunts most of the movie’s emotional impact.

The movie follows James (Brad Pitt) after the dissolution of his gang in the early 1880s as he attempts to make a home with his wife Zee (Mary-Louise Parker) and their children. A young man who idolizes James named Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) and his brother Charley (Sam Rockwell) fall in with the increasingly paranoid and distrusting bandit. Eventually Robert decides to kill his hero and James realizes that Robert’s decided to kill him. The question then becomes what will each do next.

Pitt’s comfortable in the role of the enigmatic nut  his performances in that mold in both “12 Monkeys” and “Fight Club” remain two of his most memorable  and he brings a similar vibe of charismatic psychosis to his take on James. His version of the gunslinger is a little bit Jason Bourne, a little bit the Bogeyman: he’s blessed with an uncanny ability to anticipate danger and scare the hell out of everyone around him. He masks his derangement with overly cordial gestures and speaks in niceties while planning to commit murder. In those past loon roles, Pitt’s opened the characters up to the audiences, let them inside the dementia a bit. His James is a closed book; his motives are as unclear to us as they were to those around him. After he begins to suspect that Robert plans to do him in, he gives him a beautiful new pistol as a gift. How, Robert wonders, is he to interpret the gun? Could the cunning thief have given him a defective weapon to save his own life? Or does Jesse James have a death wish?

It’s these questions that make “The Assassination of Jesse James…” worth watching. But they’re answered in such a vague, haphazard fashion, and they are approached so incredibly slowly (the movie clocks in at over 160 minutes) that the movie almost dares you stop watching it. More frustratingly, the film is a pile of contradictions. It’s a movie all about the intricacy of character despite the fact that it treats shots of rustling thistles with greater care than the dialogue scenes. It exposes the fallacy of some aspects of the Western mystique even as it upholds others. And it is about transience in a remarkably static way.

Dominik is clearly a student of the genre, and he has recaptured much of the mood of those great old ’70s western and even some of their nagging sense of impending doom (just look at that title). When the James gang breaks up, Jesse becomes a bit aimless. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the movie about him should be equally aimless.

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” opens in limited release on September 21st (official site).

Celebrating Portlandia One Sketch at a Time

Most people measure time in minutes, hours, days, years…At IFC, we measure it in sketches. And nothing takes us way (waaaaaay) back like Portlandia sketches. Yes, there’s a Portlandia milepost from every season that changed the way we think, behave, and pickle things. In honor of Portlandia’s 8th and final season, Subaru presents a few of our favorites.

Artfully Off

Sisters Weekend isn’t like other comedy groups. It’s filmmaking collaboration between besties Angelo Balassone, Michael Fails and Kat Tadesco, self-described lace-front addicts with great legs who write, direct, design and produce video sketches and cinematic shorts that are so surreally hilarious that they defy categorization. One such short film, Celebrity All-Star, is the newest addition to IFC’s Comedy Crib. Here’s what they had to say about it in a very personal email interview…

IFC: How would you describe Celebrity All-Star to a fancy network executive you just met in an elevator?

Celebrity All-Star is a short film about an overworked reality TV coordinator struggling to save her one night off after the cast of C-List celebrities she wrangles gets locked out of their hotel rooms.

IFC: How would you describe Celebrity All-Star to a drunk friend of a friend you met in a bar?

Sisters Weekend: It’s this short we made for IFC where a talent coordinator named Karen babysits a bunch of weird c-list celebs who are stuck in a hotel bar. It’s everyone you hate from reality TV under one roof – and that roof leaks because it’s a 2-star hotel. There’s a magician, sexy cowboys, and a guy wearing a belt that sucks up his farts.

IFC: What was the genesis of Celebrity All-Star?

Celebrity All-Star was born from our love of embarrassing celebrities. We love a good c-lister in need of a paycheck! We were really interested in the canned politeness people give off when forced to mingle with strangers. The backstory we created is that the cast of this reality show called “Celebrity All-Star” is in the middle of a mandatory round of “get to know each other” drinks in the hotel bar when the room keys stop working. Shows like Celebrity Ghost Hunters and of course The Surreal Life were of inspo, but we thought it
was funny to keep it really vague what kind of show they’re on, and just focus on everyone’s diva antics after the cameras stop rolling.

IFC: Every celebrity in Celebrity All-Star seems familiar. What real-life pop personalities did you look to for inspiration?

Sisters Weekend: Mike grew up renting “Monty Python” tapes from the library and staying up late to watch 2000’s SNL, Kat was super into Andy Kaufman and “Kids In The Hall” in high school, and Angelo was heavily influenced by “Strangers With Candy” and Anna Faris in the Scary Movie franchise, so, our comedy heroes mesh from all over. But, also we idolize a lot of the people we work with in NY- Lorelei Ramirez, Erin Markey, Mary Houlihan, who are all in the film, Amy Zimmer, Ana Fabrega, Patti Harrison, Sam Taggart. Geniuses! All of Em!

IFC: What’s your favorite moment from the film?

Sisters Weekend: I mean…seeing Mary Houlihan scream at an insane Pomeranian on an iPad is pretty great.

IFC: To varying degrees, your sketches are simply scripted examples of things that actually happen. What makes real life so messed up?

Aurora: Hubris, Ego and Selfish Desires and lack of empathy.

Carolyn: That we’re trapped together in the 3rd Dimension.

Jenn: 1. Other people 2. Other people’s problems 3. Probably something I did.

IFC: A lot of people I know have watched this show and realized, “Dear god, that’s me.” or “Dear god, that’s true.” Why do people have their blinders on?

Aurora: Because most people when you’re in the middle of a situation, you don’t have the perspective to step back and see yourself because you’re caught up in the moment. That’s the job of comedians is to step back and have a self-awareness about these things, not only saying “You’re doing this,” but also, “You’re not the only one doing this.” It’s a delicate balance of making people feel uncomfortable and comforting them at the same time.

IFC: Unlike a lot of popular sketch comedy, your sketches often focus more on group dynamics vs iconic individual characters. Why do you think that is and why is it important?

Meredith: We consider the show to be more based around human dynamics, not so much characters. If anything we’re more attracted to the energy created by people interacting.

Jenn: So much of life is spent trying to work it out with other people, whether it’s at work, at home, trying to commute to work, or even on Facebook it’s pretty hard to escape the group.

IFC: Are there any comedians out there that you feel are just nailing it?

Aurora: I love Key and Peele. I know that their show is done and I’m in denial about it, but they are amazing because there were many times that I would imagine that Keegan Michael Key was in the scene while writing. If I could picture him saying it, I knew it would work. I also kind of have a crush on Jordan Peele and his performance in Big Mouth. Maya Rudolph also just makes everything amazing. Her puberty demon on Big Mouth is flawless. She did an ad for 7th generation tampons that my son, my husband and myself were singing around the house for weeks. If I could even get anything close to her career, I would be happy. I’m also back in love with Rick and Morty. I don’t know if I have a crush on Justin Roiland, I just really love Rick (maybe even more than Morty). I don’t have a crush on Jerry, the dad, but I have a crush on Chris Parnell because he’s so good at being Jerry.

IFC: If you could go back in time and cast yourselves in any sitcom, which would it be and how would it change?

Carolyn: I’d go back in time and cast us in The Partridge Family. We’d make an excellent family band. We’d have a laugh, break into song and wear ruffled blouses with velvet jackets. And of course travel to all our gigs on a Mondrian bus. I feel really confident about this choice.

Meredith: Electric Mayhem from The Muppet Show. It wouldn’t change, they were simply perfect, except… maybe a few more vaginas in the band.

Binge the entire first and second seasons of Baroness von Sketch Show now on IFC.com and the IFC app.